Wedding Invitations and Forgotten Sisters
by ItsOnMars
Summary: Vernon had hidden the wedding invitations.  Petunia liked to pretend that it didn't matter to her, that she would have rejected them anyway, but she knew that it was a lie.  Written for the "Sibling Rivalry" Competition.


**OOO**

Vernon had hidden the wedding invitations. Petunia liked to pretend that it didn't matter to her, that she would have rejected them anyway, but she knew that it was a lie. Petunia would have at least liked to send her own letter to Lily, telling her how sorry she was that things had become like this, and that she was sure Lily would look beautiful on her wedding day, and that if this James Potter ever made her cry, Petunia would come over to their house and teach the man a thing or two about what happened when you upset an Evans sister. But it was all a lie, really. Because Petunia knew she had no right to get angry at someone if they made Lily Evans cry. She lost that right the day she refused to go with her to King's Cross, the day that she decided that Lily Evans was no sister of hers.

Lily had had her faults, though, and Petunia was quite familiar with them. Lily was stubborn, a trait that she had inherited from her mother. Lily was a bookworm, she was oblivious to male attention, she was always the favored once and she had been too nice. For God's sake, she just kept trying to make amends with Petunia, kept trying to forget all the harsh words and horrible arguments the two had had. But Lily Evans's worst fault had been that she never ever wrote to Petunia after the wedding invitation. Petunia was quite sure of this, because every day she would wait and wait for a stupid little owl to fly up with a letter, or for the mailbox to a letter written in that neat, tiny script that could only belong to Petunia's sister. And every day, Petunia went to bed, pretending that it didn't kill her inside when no such letter came.

Vernon had only told Petunia of what he had done the day of the wedding. He had thought it quite funny, he said, that that freakish sister of Petunia's, Lola or whatever her name had been, had even entertained the thought that a Dursley would come to such a freakshow wedding. Petunia had laughed along uneasily and then waited for Vernon to leave before mumbling, _I'm not a Dursley_.

It had been a regular Thursday afternoon in September, 1981, when Petunia sat down to watch the telly, looking over every now and then to see if Dudley was still asleep in his crib. Suddenly, she had heard the flapping of wings, and had turned to see an owl sitting on her window, calm as could be, holding an envelope in its beak. Petunia had cautiously approached it, snatching the envelope out as quickly as possible before looking back at her window. The owl had flown away, not even waiting for a response.

With shaking fingers, Petunia opened the envelope only to have three pictures fall out. The first was Lily, looking older and more tired and happier than Petunia had ever seen her in her whole life, lying down in what looked to be a hospital bed with a small bundle in her arms with a handsome and grinning dark haired man on her right. Upon looking closer, Petunia realized that the small bundle was actually a newborn baby, looking at its mother with a small smile on its sleepy face. To Petunia's surprise and then annoyance, the picture began to move. Lily would turn to the man on her left every now and then and give him an adoring smile, which he immediately reciprocated. The baby would close its eyes, and then immediately open them to look back its mother, the wizarding photograph looping the scene over and over again. At the bottom of the photograph, she saw neat and small handwriting, which read _Harry James Potter, 7.31.1980_. Petunia had given a tiny smile, staring at the photograph with a pained look in her eyes.

The next photograph was of the same three people, only this time Lily was grinning as she watched the dark-haired man, who Petunia supposed was the famed James Potter, feeding Harry. Harry would choose the moment the food entered his mouth to sneeze, the baby mush splattering James, much to his horror and Harry and Lily's amusement. Lily would throw her head back, her red hair falling down her back as Harry would give his mother a smile full of adoration. James started to chuckle, and Petunia noticed with a jolt that although Harry looked quite like James, he had his mother's eyes. She quickly looked away, feeling strange for watching this family moment as she wondered who had taken the photo. As she looked at the bottom of the photograph, she once again met Lily's handwriting, this time reading _8.15.80_. Petunia had given a watery smile at that, looking back at the photograph one more time before switching to the next one.

The third one was different from the rest, as it was just a regular, non-moving photograph, much to Petunia's happiness and confusion. It was an old one, one that Petunia had seen countless times in her youth. In it stood a young Petunia and Lily, arms wrapped around each other with matching outfits and smiles. Below the photograph was written Lily's last message. _I still love you, Tuney. Don't think that's changed_.

That night, Petunia cried more than she had in the past year.

**OOO**

**Well. I've gone and depressed myself.**

**Anyway, this was my second piece for the "Sibling Rivalry" competition, and I hope you all liked it! Don't hesitate to leave a review :)**

**Sincerely,**

**ItsOnMars**


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